Big plays separate Packers from Bears
GREEN BAY, Wis. —The Bears had 20 first downs Sunday. The Packers only 12.
They had 429 yards to Green Bay's 292. They had a nine-minute edge in time of possession. They had only one real turnover, an interception by former Boylan star Dean Lowry halfway through the fourth quarter.
So why did the Packers win — again — and do so fairly easily, taking an 18-point lead and winning 21-13?
Any of three plays could have changed the game. If Cordarrelle Patterson doesn't twitch his foot at the last second and go out-of-bounds by a fraction of an inch, the Bears score a TD instead of a field goal at the beginning of the fourth quarter. If Aaron Rodgers doesn't throw a perfect 29-yard TD pass to Davante Adams on fourth-and-4, the Packers lose a touchdown. And the refs throwing a late flag for a debatable penalty on Patterson to wipe out a fumbled Green Bay punt return was another seven-point swing.
There truly isn't a ton of difference between the 11-3 Packers and the 7-7 Bears.
Not even Aaron Rodgers thinks the Packers have impressed people.
"I don't know that we have the full respect of the entire league at this point," Rodgers said, "based on some of our performances where we got beat by a couple of scores, and kind of the reaction to some of those situations, but we're 7-1 at home and we have an inside track at the No. 2 seed."
What the Packers have, besides Rodgers, is the ability to make big plays at big times.
The don't always convert. Marquez Valdes-Scantling dropped what would have been at least a 40-yard gain and maybe a 70-yard TD on Green Bay's first play of the game. But Rodgers hit Adams for 34 and 29 yards and Jake Kumerow for 49. Aaron Jones had a 21-yard run. Rodgers a 17-yard scramble. Those five plays accounted for 150 of Green Bay's 292 total yards.
"When you're playing against a good defense, you've got to get those chunk plays," Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. "We've got to find ways to create some explosives. If you're able to do that, you're able to score points."
The Bears don't do that any more. At least not nearly enough. None of Chicago's 27 running plays, not even a Trubisky scramble, gained 10 yards. Only two of their 83 plays gained 25 yards.
You wonder why the Bears can't run? Because they don't stretch the field. Defenses crowd the line of scrimmage.
The Packers also make more big plays on defense. Their 23 takeaways are seventh in the NFL. Chicago, first with 36 takeaways last year, has fallen into a tie for 21st with 16 takeaways.
And sometimes a big play is simply stuffing the run to lead to a long third-down play. One reason Chicago went scoreless on its first four drives is the Bears gained only 18 yards on nine rushing attempts on those drives.
"Limiting them in the running game in the first half was really big," Lowry said. "It made them one-dimensional throughout most of the game. When we can hold teams to second-and-long and third-and-long, we're a great defense."
"Whenever we get a negative play on first or second down," defensive tackle Kenny Clark said, "that's how we play our best."
The Bears held Green Bay to a below-average 5-for-15 on third down conversions and the Packers punted seven times, including the last five times they had the ball.
Truth is, the Packers punt a lot. They are tied for seventh in the NFL for most punts with 67. The Bears are even worse with 75 punts, one behind the Jets for the most in the league.
The Packers aren't that great on third down. They know that. But they also know you don't have to methodically move down the field to score. Chicago was pretty good on third down Sunday, going 9-for-20, but sometimes the easiest way to score is to never have to worry about a make-or-break down.
"Third down has not been very good to us," LaFleur said. "We've got to find ways to create those chunk plays and stay out of third-down situations."
Green Bay is finding ways to do that. Chicago isn't.
Matt Trowbridge: 815-987-1383; mtrowbridge@rrstar.com; @matttrowbridge
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